High-hat stand includes a tubular stand main body in which a lower cymbal is attached to an upper end part thereof, an up/down rod that is inserted into the stand main body and has a protruding upper end part at which an upper cymbal is held, a pedal connected to the lower end of the up/down rod, a coil spring that biases the up/down rod in an upward direction, and a spring force adjustment device that adjusts a spring force of the coil spring, wherein the pedal is stepped on to lower the up/down rod together with the upper cymbal and strike the lower cymbal (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).
The coil spring and the spring force adjustment device are configured such that a bar-like spring receiver is provided inside a tubular body provided in parallel with the lower end part of the stand main body and is connected to the lower end of the up/down rod via a connecting metal fitting, the lower end of the coil spring provided inside the tubular body is locked onto the spring receiver, and the upper end of the coil spring is locked onto an adjustment cap screwed to the upper end part of the tubular body. The adjustment cap is rotated to change the length of the spring to adjust the spring force. These coil spring and spring force adjustment device have a simplified structure and allow an easy adjustment operation. However, when the connecting metal fitting and the tubular body are provided in parallel with the lower end part of the stand main body as described above, it is necessary to make the pedal for operating the stand longer and larger in size to maintain operability. This causes a problem of a further reduction in a limited foot space in the presence of the stand leg and the pedal, thereby leading to deterioration of usability.
Meanwhile, there has been provided a structure in which a coil spring and a spring force adjustment device are provided in the middle of a stand main body. For example, Patent Document 2 suggests a structure including: an internal tube member disposed around an up/down rod on the inner side of the stand main body; a tension coil spring that is provided around the up/down rod on the further inner side of the internal tube member, has an upper end locked onto the upper end of the internal tube member, and has a lower end fixed to the up/down rod; a lock member that is provided at the lower part of the internal tube member so as to protrude to the outside through a notch in the stand main body; and an adjustment member that is rotatably provided on the outer periphery of the stand main body and has at an upper part a plurality of engagement steps different in height and engaging with the lock member.
In such a structure, the stand can be easily operated only by rotating the adjustment member with one hand in the direction in which the lock member descends together with the internal tube member, that is, in the direction in which the spring force becomes weaker. However, the stand needs to be operated by rotating the adjustment member with one hand while raising and holding the lock member with the other hand to engage the steps with the lock member in the direction in which the lock member is raised together with the internal tube member, that is, in the direction in which the spring force becomes stronger. Such an adjustment operation using both hands is troublesome and thus the foregoing structure has a problem of operability. In addition, it is hard for a user to decide the amount of raising the lock member if he or she is not careful. In the case where the user temporarily raises the lock member and then wishes to fine-tune the height of the lock member afterward, he or she cannot understand to what degree to turn the adjustment member to lower the lock member, and as a result, he or she cannot return the lock member even to the state before the adjustment.
Patent Document 3 suggests a structure including: a coil spring locked at one end onto an up/down rod; a slide pin onto which the other end of the coil spring is locked; an elongated hole that is formed in a stand main body and extended along the axial direction of the stand main body, the slide pin being freely inserted into the elongated hole; a sleeve that is fitted and fixed to the stand main body, extended along the axial direction of the stand main body, has an elongated hole into which a protruding part of the slide pin is freely inserted, and has a plurality of engagement grooves arranged along the axial direction of the stand main body and guide paths connected to the engagement grooves; a rotary knob that is rotatably fitted into the stand main body, has a pin engagement part abutted by the protruding part of the slide pin protruding from both of the elongated holes, and has a positioning projection that is engaged with any of the plurality of engagement grooves to set the height of the slide pin with respect to the stand main body.
According to the structure disclosed in Patent Document 3, when the rotary knob is rotated to engage the positioning projection with any of the plurality of engagement grooves, the position of the rotary knob is changed with respect to the axial direction of the sleeve, and the height of the slide pin is also changed with respect to the stand main body, whereby the spring force can be adjusted with one hand. In this structure, however, to adjust the spring force, it is necessary to perform a complicated operation of rotating temporarily the rotary knob to release the positioning projection from the engagement groove in the sleeve and then moving the positioning projection again in the axial direction to fit the positioning projection into another engagement groove. During the operation, the user needs to continuously support the rotary knob against the spring force.
In addition, in the foregoing structure, the positioning projection is not to be moved one by one between the engagement grooves, and thus if the user is not careful, it is hard for him or her to understand how many engagement grooves are passed between before and after movement of the positioning projection in the axial direction. Therefore, in the case where the user adjusts temporarily the spring force and then wishes to fine-tune the spring force again afterward, he or she cannot understand with what engagement groove to engage the positioning projection unless he or she memorize the position of the positioning projection before the adjustment, and thus cannot return the positioning projection even to the state before the adjustment.